The Digital Craftsman

Craftsmanship within the context of contemporary architectural design has failed to play a meaningful role, confined by nostalgic perceptions. Likewise, the architect has also forgone this territory of design and making due to the dependencies of abstract processes, severing the response of a material-based approach. As recognized, craftsmanship serves to provide this necessary dialogue between the processes of making and its translation into an expressive, material-based architecture. The digital craftsman re-evaluates this dialogical understanding by adapting some of the architects’ contemporary tools in developing a new design methodology towards architectural craftsmanship. 

This thesis examines various facets of the craftsman’s process, strategically situating a distinctive design approach, evaluated through a series of design-based investigations illustrating the manifested nuances of craftsmanship in architecture. This novel perspective offers the architect a valuable means of responding to the notion of craftsmanship as a valid form of design and making within our contemporary architectural discourse.